Chapter 7: Xanadu

Tuesday morning at the Lucas household saw Melanie and Fred being served breakfast by their Security Service agent Robert Watkins As she'd done every day since her parents had discovered her naturist proclivities, Melanie sat nude at the dining room table, enjoying a delicious meal of fruit, yogurt and muesli, with orange juice and milk. Her 10-year-old little brother had taken to wearing the same outfit, and was cheerfully gobbling down some sugar-laden cereal concoction, much to Watkins' open disgust.

Watkins disappeared from the dining room to respond to the chime of the front doorbell, his hand automatically going to the needler concealed in his shoulder holster. He returned a moment later, escorting his fellow Security Service agent, Katherine Lawrence.

Katherine started off with, "My deepest apologies for yesterday's incident at the gym. If we had suspected that someone would try something like that, we would have placed a guard over your clothes."

"Thank you," Melanie nodded, and added darkly, "and thank goodness it wasn't a bomb."

"We had detectors installed in your school, back when you started there," Katherine advised the teen. "A bomb wouldn't have made it through the front doors without our knowing about it." She handed Melanie an envelope. "From President Yamashita."

Melanie was impressed as she opened the envelope bearing the Seal of the President of the Solaria Federation. First, it was real paper – something hideously expensive. Most people sent their written communications electronically, even if handwritten with a stylus on a data pad. Second, it was thick paper, even more dear.

The message within was written using a real pen and blue ink. Again, this indicated the sender was taking a personal interest in the topic and felt the message important. No secretary or word processor was used – they risked ruining a pricey piece of personalized stationery should they need to edit their scribblings.

In the letter, President Yamashita expressed her personal dismay at the actions of a few "miscreants", as she worded it, and at the Security Service's failure to anticipate and prevent such an event. She had ordered Melanie's personal protection, and that of her little brother, ramped up.

Melanie cocked her head at Katherine. "In what way is our security being 'ramped up'?"

"Before, we'd escorted you to and from school, and wherever else you went outside of school. From here on in, one of us will be escorting you right to class, and remain in your classroom."

"That makes sense," Melanie conceded.

Watkins interrupted at that point. "It's time for you two to get dressed and be off to school."

"Do I hafta?" Fred pleaded.

Melanie interjected, "The rules say you have to wear clothes on Luna City streets."

"But how did you get home?" he challenged.

"Ms. Lawrence had Mr. Watkins grab some replacement clothes for me, and had someone take them to school."

"And those guys who were marching in front of Mom and Dad on Saturday?"

Melanie was surprised – she hadn't heard about them. She looked over at Katherine.

"I understand the police decided to treat them as if they'd been granted a protest permit," Katherine related. "The City Administration and police authorities felt it would be better for everyone if the nudity was treated as protected free speech."

Melanie turned back to Fred. "So unless you're holding a protest sign, you've got to wear clothes to school," she concluded.

Fred pondered a moment. "I could make a sign!"

"I don't think so. Mom and Dad would not be impressed."

Reluctantly, Fred went upstairs to dress. Reluctantly, so did Melanie

Tom and Barbara Lucas had arrived at Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. The population was relatively sparse, as a moon with a gravity .14 that of Earth and lakes and rivers and seas of liquid methane do not make for an appealing family home. Each of the few cities was located, like those of Earth's Moon, under a series of large domes.

The main city of Titan was named after the feature it occupied: Xanadu. To Barbara's eyes, it bore no resemblance whatsoever to the stately pleasure dome as described in Coleridge's famous poem. It was plain and utilitarian, its cluster of partially recessed domes filled with warehouses, processing facilities and stacks of tiny apartments. The only grass was located in a diminutive park with a small water fountain at its heart, located in the centre of the administration dome and surrounded by government offices. Xanadu's other greenery was largely confined to hydroponic market gardens producing food rather than flowers.

Tom gave his speech, and Barbara stood beside him, smiling bravely throughout. The locals here weren't as jocular as their counterparts at Mining Camp 433 Eros. That possibly was because the audience for this breakfast meeting had been carefully screened by the local party officials against the kind of reaction Tom had "enjoyed" yesterday.

The floor was thrown open after the speech for questions from the audience and press. The first question threw Tom and Barbara for a loop.

"Any comment about your daughter running around school naked?" demanded a representative from the on-line newspaper, the Interplanetary Intelligencer. This was owned by a subsidiary of Buzz Brenner's Brenner News Network.

Tom and Barbara's eyes both went up. "Excuse me?"

The aggressive reporter repeated his question, following it up with, "I assume she would tell you about something this important?"

"We usually get a note from her every evening, but we didn't last night?"

"You're saying she was too ashamed to tell her parents? She seemed quite the hussy on that picture we saw."

"Um, picture?" Tom quizzed. He looked toward the local Party Representative, a no-nonsense type named Chet Atkinson. Chet, unable to shine any light on the situation either, was using the cell phone built into his watch to try to get an update.

"Yes," grilled the implacable reporter as the rest of the press lapped it up. "The one at that sex resort."

"The one of her swimming in the nude?" Tom guessed.

"That's the one," the unpleasant reporter confirmed.

"That's not a sex resort, it's a naturist resort, a family naturist resort," Tom advised him, glowering. "We have confirmed that there was no impropriety, that the nudity was social rather than sexual, she was fully chaperoned by multiple highly responsible adults, and that her swimming technique needs work."

That last line, at least, got some snickers from the crowd.

Tom added, with some asperity, "Now, we haven't heard about yesterday at all, so could someone please fill in the blanks? Mr., what did you say your name was?"